Capcom confident about Resident Evil on the Wii

Many attribute much of the Wii's success to the large audience it is able to cater to. Unlike most offerings available on, say, the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3, Nintendo has tried to make a wide array of games that appeal to many demographics, including people who have never played video games before. Nintendo has been doing very well, churning out over 50 million Wii units in two and a half years. Unfortunately for them, it also means that many gamers don't see the Wii as a real contender for the “blockbuster” games they expect on other platforms. The smaller (but arguably more vocal) category of gamers that lust after titles like Left 4 Dead, Grand Theft Auto IV, Fallout 3 and numerous others aren't likely to see the Wii as a comparable console. Or are they?

Developers like Sega have challenged that notion, who believe that the “family-oriented” Wii could be a target platform for more mature audiences as well. To that end, they helped Platinum Games deliver MadWorld to the Wii, one of the very few “violent” games the console has to offer. To their dismay, despite good reviews and coverage, the game has sold poorly, not yet achieving even 70,000 units sold.

Meanwhile, Capcom plans to bring the very successful Resident Evil series to the Wii, and believe that the current failure of MadWorld is not indicative of what could be achieved with the console. Masachika Kawata of Capcom has no concerns about sales of their upcoming Resident Evil: The Dark Side Chronicles on the Wii, and believes that other titles, like Dead Space, will only help encourage more competition on the Wii for “hardcore” gaming.

Confidence aside, there's certainly a stigma to overcome with the Wii. Nobody can dispute that it's a successful console, but it's successful for very different reasons than the PC, Xbox 360 or PS3. Can the Wii really translate hardcore gaming well enough to capture players?